I've just made it into a USB flash drive.
Why are you crying?
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Fnurgled - Album of the year
Imagine an artist with no label backing, not even an indie label, creating an Abbey Road, a Wish You Were Here or a True. Imagine an artist sitting squarely in a pop sensibility, yet transcending that with pure poetry and challenging subjects. Imagine The Beatles jamming with Spandau Ballet in Brian Eno's studio while Sir George Martin sometimes sits back, mouth agape, amazed at the raw nerve of humanity touched by the music and the lyrics. That could well be Sp3ccylad.
Let's face it, Bedroom Producer is a term were going to hear a lot in the next year or two. We're going to hear it so much it'll get on everybody's pip, and Sp3ccylad is well worthy of a label so much less trite - worthy simply because this is potentially life-changing music, poetic, simple, at times dark, yet always beautiful. I prefer to call him a free agent or a truly independent artist, because if there's any justice in this world, he won't be recording in his bedroom for long, he'll be touring and performing globally.
Sp3ccylad's debut album, Fnurgled, is an amazingly accessible look into a hopeful yet dark heart. It's pleasant to listen to, it has a groove and a zing any good pop album should have. From the rockabilly lo fi of Everything Has A Price, to the big, bold and brassy Hey You, there's music for the neck down, a party in every tune.
Then there's the sparse and gentle Rain In The Summertime and Spun Out, both reflective and indicative a of a deep-thinking, self-aware lyricist. These tracks especially showing that Spandau Ballet influence. The melody is eminently hummable, yet think about what he's singing about and you'll feel his humanity I'm sure.
Meanwhile all this is balanced out by the cheeky pisstake of tracks like Guilty, which sets us up to expect another deep, reflective ballad, then dashes us on the rocks of, Hey! where'd that song go? All one minute and three seconds of it drip with expectation of something big, yet challenge us into realising the big stuff, the truly important stuff, can be said in so few words. Please don't read this as a spoiler, I've heard this one several times now, and in the overall mix, it surprises me every time. You wont see it coming, even knowing it is.
In his turn of phrase, his choice of sounds, his occassionally deliberately lo fi vocal, Sp3ccylad takes us on a journey to not only to his soul, but the soul of all human experience - love, life, loss and hope. And in writing of hope, I think of the sweet gentle scatting vocal on Song For The Lost, an uplifting melodic melange of happy bass and drum lines, lilting child-like vocals, colour, depth and ever present, irrepressible ambition of people to find happiness even in the darkest hour of their lives.
Buy Fnurgled if there's the slightest spirit of the dreaming child left in you. Listen to Fnurgled daily if you want to keep your hopes and dreams alive. Embrace Fnurgled everytime you feel daily life getting a stranglehold on you and let the music lift the air pressure under your wings and push you towards the sky. This is an Abbey Road, a Wish You Were Here or a True, and it comes from the artist's bedroom and his heart.
From B&Massa's Filthy Noises.
Let's face it, Bedroom Producer is a term were going to hear a lot in the next year or two. We're going to hear it so much it'll get on everybody's pip, and Sp3ccylad is well worthy of a label so much less trite - worthy simply because this is potentially life-changing music, poetic, simple, at times dark, yet always beautiful. I prefer to call him a free agent or a truly independent artist, because if there's any justice in this world, he won't be recording in his bedroom for long, he'll be touring and performing globally.
Sp3ccylad's debut album, Fnurgled, is an amazingly accessible look into a hopeful yet dark heart. It's pleasant to listen to, it has a groove and a zing any good pop album should have. From the rockabilly lo fi of Everything Has A Price, to the big, bold and brassy Hey You, there's music for the neck down, a party in every tune.
Then there's the sparse and gentle Rain In The Summertime and Spun Out, both reflective and indicative a of a deep-thinking, self-aware lyricist. These tracks especially showing that Spandau Ballet influence. The melody is eminently hummable, yet think about what he's singing about and you'll feel his humanity I'm sure.
Meanwhile all this is balanced out by the cheeky pisstake of tracks like Guilty, which sets us up to expect another deep, reflective ballad, then dashes us on the rocks of, Hey! where'd that song go? All one minute and three seconds of it drip with expectation of something big, yet challenge us into realising the big stuff, the truly important stuff, can be said in so few words. Please don't read this as a spoiler, I've heard this one several times now, and in the overall mix, it surprises me every time. You wont see it coming, even knowing it is.
In his turn of phrase, his choice of sounds, his occassionally deliberately lo fi vocal, Sp3ccylad takes us on a journey to not only to his soul, but the soul of all human experience - love, life, loss and hope. And in writing of hope, I think of the sweet gentle scatting vocal on Song For The Lost, an uplifting melodic melange of happy bass and drum lines, lilting child-like vocals, colour, depth and ever present, irrepressible ambition of people to find happiness even in the darkest hour of their lives.
Buy Fnurgled if there's the slightest spirit of the dreaming child left in you. Listen to Fnurgled daily if you want to keep your hopes and dreams alive. Embrace Fnurgled everytime you feel daily life getting a stranglehold on you and let the music lift the air pressure under your wings and push you towards the sky. This is an Abbey Road, a Wish You Were Here or a True, and it comes from the artist's bedroom and his heart.
From B&Massa's Filthy Noises.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Fnurgled - on iTunes!
It's official - the global release is underway: you can now buy Fnurgled on iTunes! So - those of you waiting (and I know of a few!) can get in there and buy something I'm inordinately proud of.
You know it makes sense.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Journalistic Cliche Debunked
One of my favourite comedy skits, from This Morning With Richard, Not Judy, by the god-like Stewart Lee and Richard Herring.
Ever get irritated with the sad journo's cliche of "X is like Y on Z", where X is a new phenomenon, Y is an established act, and Z is some sort of drug? Well, it's untrue. Especially where X is Lee Evans, Y is Norman Wisdom and Z is acid.
Hurrah for the empirical scientific method, and respect to Vulga for posting it to YouTube in the first place.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
A Darkened Room
Oh, yeah - now you're talking.
B&Massa has squeezed out a marvellous, bluesily acoustic song that he envisages being part of a new album slated to be finished in September. It's an utterly great little piece, and if you don't listen to it, you're crackers.
Stream A Darkened Room here.
B&Massa has squeezed out a marvellous, bluesily acoustic song that he envisages being part of a new album slated to be finished in September. It's an utterly great little piece, and if you don't listen to it, you're crackers.
Stream A Darkened Room here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
